Mario Annicchiarico / Times Colonist
FEBRUARY 18, 2017 10:54 PM
WEST KELOWNA 3
VICTORIA 2
Mission accomplished.
For the third time in five seasons, the Victoria Grizzlies have claimed the B.C. Hockey League’s Island Division crown, using a single point in a 3-2 overtime road loss to the defending league and Royal Bank Cup-champion West Kelowna Warriors on Saturday night.
Victoria is now 9-1-1 over its last 11 games and still very much on a roll with just three games remaining in the regular season, including this afternoon’s start at 2 against the Penticton Vees.
“That’s what we were after tonight,” Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon said of the division crown. “It’s where we want to be. It’s where we feel we should be.
“We have a great organization and a great ownerships group and our expectation is to be on top of the Island. We set that goal at the start of the year and we fulfilled it tonight.”
The Grizzlies also won the division in 2013-14 when they finished 38-14-3-3 and tied with Langley for top spot in the entire league with 82 points. That season they won their first two playoff series to advance to the three-team, round-robin semifinals, along with Langley and Coquitlam, but did not make the championship series.
The year previous, Victoria topped the division with a 33-13-10-0 record, tied with Penticton at 76 points behind just the Surrey Eagles.
On Saturday, Chase Stevenson collected his second goal of the game, this one on a power play, at 4:05 of overtime for the win.
The Grizzlies fell behind 2-0 11:00 into the game on goals from Stevenson and Jon Russell. Cole Pickup replied at 14:44 of the first to get the visitors going.
Pickup’s point tied him for the all-time lead for the Grizzlies’ franchise (not including the Salsa years) with Myles Fitzgerald at 154 points. Fitzgerald did manage the mark in 110 games played, less than half of Pickup’s 221.
Lucas Clark, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Friday, then tied it at 2-2 late in the first.
Backup netminder Tony Rehm made the start in goal for Victoria and faced 29 shots, while Gabriel Morency made 40 saves for West Kelowna.
By clinching the division crown the Grizzlies will have home ice advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs, should they win their first-round series.
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